SE ee ae

 

 

 

An Animation Domination proclamation

New seasons of Fox’s animated series have surprising ups and downs

    

Angela Espinoza

ith autumn now upon us, the
weather is getting noticeably
unstable. The sun and rain

consistently duke it out. It’s becoming more
of a hassle to head out and enjoy ourselves:
spending lots of time getting ready,
committing to plans, only to have some
meteorological disaster fall upon us. With
this in mind, we begin to find ourselves
staying home more often. Despite popular
belief, having a night in with your pals isn’t
necessarily a bad thing.

On September 27 Fox premiered the
new season of its Sunday-night line-up,
the Animation Domination. This two-hour
programming block, consisting of four
maturely themed animated shows, is a sure-
fire way to kill time and have a few laughs
along the way.

The Simpsons kicked off the night
with the long-running series now entering
its twenty-first season. The season opener,
“Homer the Whopper,” once again featured
the making of a superhero movie, as well
as the boomerang plot of Homer trying to
lose weight. However, Comic Book Guy is
writing the screenplay and Homer is cast as
the main character. This Simpsons season
managed to start out surprisingly strong,
thanks to our homegrown Seth Rogen, who
not only guest starred but wrote the entire
episode with fellow Superbad writer Evan
Goldberg.

With an audience number just above
that of a cult following, the fact that King
of the Hill stayed on air for as long as it did
was a miracle. Along with my few brethren,
I was heartbroken to hear its thirteenth
season would be its last, leaving an open
time slot.

Seth Macfarlane seized the opportunity
with a spin-off to his ever-popular Family
Guy. I'ma strong FG follower, but The

Cleveland Show left me with a funny taste
in my mouth. Cleveland, the main character,
is funny enough with his one-liners, but

to have his own show baffles me. The first
episode was so bland and unimaginative,

I kept telling myself the same thing I do
whenever I think of Joel Schumacher’s
Batman and Robin: “This has to be a joke...
nothing this terrible could be real.”

Family Guy itself was third in the
line-up. Their season opener, “Road to the
Multiverse,” had Stewie and Brian taking us
to various universes, one of which had life
without Christianity, where we made great
scientific breakthroughs, but fell horrifically
short aesthetically. The highlight of their
adventure was the Disney Universe. The
artwork was not only stunningly beautiful
but long-time fans of the show would’ ve
found portrayals of several characters mind-
blowing. With a song about pie and “warm
and fuzzy” feelings, you’d think this was
the perfect universe; that is, until Walt’s old
friend, anti-Semitism, reared its ugly head.

The night closed with American Dad,
another one of MacFarlane’s creations.

For those that dislike FG’s infamous cut
scenes, this show provides much more
focus on dialogue, using witty humour to
entertain us instead of random absurdities.
The season opener itself was another repeat
plot: Steve Smith tries to earn his father’s
respect, once again gaining zilch. This time
it’s through an intense golf course recreation
of the Vietnam War. As a side plot, Roger
the Alien is eager to watch “Barbara Does
Céline,” a $499 pay-per-view live event
where Streisand covers Dion’s discography.
As is usually the case, the episode falls
short, leaving Roger supplying much of the
laughs.

Whatever your taste in animated
comedy is, you get a variety of options with
the Animation Domination. I hope I’ve
encouraged some of you to end gloomy
weekends on an over-all high note, and
remember that a Sunday night in isn’t
always a total bummer.

 

“It’s only going to get worse!”

Vancouver says goodbye to its best hardcore bar

By Jay Schreiber, Arts Editor

ancouver’s music scene felt
a huge blow on Saturday
September 26 when some of the

best known musical acts of the Lower
Mainland gathered to mourn the loss of
one of the most pivotal venues known to
the downtown core.

The Cobalt Motor Hotel, which
has kept punk rock and hardcore alive
in Vancouver for the last 10 years, has
finally been forced to shut its doors after
pressure from the slum lords and the
city of Vancouver. Why you may ask?
The long list of complaints range from
health code violations to noise levels and
suspected drug usage.

to signal the end of the show. It was a
perfect cadence on the evening and could
not have summed up the feelings in the
room any better.

Why does Vancouver need the
Cobalt you may ask? Punk rock and
hardcore exist and most would say thrive
in this city. To ignore a music scene in
any particular area is to shut out the
community and close your eyes to the
world around you.

The City is obviously blindfolded
in making this move and soon will have
to face the repercussions of their actions.
Instead of have a place for punk rockers
to live and get along harmoniously, the
city is sending a message that punks
instead belong on the streets and that they

don’t

“Instead of have a place for punk rockers to live and get
along harmoniously, the city is sending a message that
they instead belong on the streets and that they don’t
deserve a place to call home.”

While this isn’t the first time the
Cobalt has been in threat of closing, it
is certainly the last time when the lease
ran out on the first of October. The
show on the 26" was a final goodbye to
Vancouver’s hardcore home with a book
release from Chris Walter and a bill of
BC’s most notorious punkers.

Alcoholic White Trash (AWT)
stormed on stage and encouraged
everyone on to destroy the bar one last
time. “This is your last fucking night
here! Let’s let them know who we are!”
the band jeered.

Original drummer Jason Brown, who
died three years ago after a long bout with
cancer, was immortalized on the walls
of the Cobalt with a giant picture and
memorial in his honour. No longer will he
be remembered by patrons of the cobalt,
except by those who knew of him.

“Tt’s only going to get worse,” AWT
stated between songs and rants of social
issues arose to which the crowd only
fumed more. “They’re taking away our
home! This is our place to be who we
want to be,” they continued

The Vancouver Subhumans took the
stage for an extra long session of their
song “Fuck You” to close the cobalt one
last time. “I guess we’re going to play
and then that’s it,” lead singer Brian Roy
Goble said before the band kicked off its
first show in months.

It was somewhere in the middle of
the set that everyone in the bar was hit by
the same feeling; this is the last Saturday
night that anyone would ever spend at the
loudest bar in the city—let’s tear shit up!
People began taking apart the bar piece
by piece, ripping tiles off the bathroom
walls and dismembering the wall of Jager
bottles.

Somewhere in the morning hours,
The Subhumans ran out of songs and
Wendy 13, owner of the bar for the last
decade took the microphone and said her
two words. “Fuck the slum lords, fuck the
city of Vancouver, fuck people who don’t
think that this place should be here!”

While her speech carried on,
Subhuman’s bassist Gary Hannah
destroyed his bass against a cinder block

 

deserve a place to call home. I’m not
saying that punk rock is for everyone,
because it’s not. However, if you ignore
its existence it isn’t going to just go away.

Venues are almost like musical
homes to the artistically inclined, and
by eliminating places like the Cobalt
or Richards on Richards, the homeless
situation in the GVRD is only getting
worse. Punkers have been feeling the
burn ever since CBGB’s, the bar where
punk rock was born, was shut down in
New York a few years back. It’s now a
Starbucks, because New York didn’t have
enough of those already.

Being a patron of the Cobalt steadily
for the last five years, I personally feel as
though I have been robbed, and I don’t
know where to hear the music I love
anymore. The bar will be re-opened in a
little while as a “boom tisk boom tisk”
club, and probably under a different
name.

I feel I speak for the punk rock
community when I say, farewell old
friend; you will be missed.

BO rary